


The Greatest Wizard to Ever Live

by pratintraining



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Gen, babysitter!merlin, kid!Arthur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-27
Updated: 2015-04-27
Packaged: 2018-03-26 02:41:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3833989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pratintraining/pseuds/pratintraining
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sixteen year old Merlin has to babysit his annoying six year old cousin Arthur. The weather gets pretty bad and then—oh shit!—the power goes out, and it looks like his baby cousin is scared of the dark.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Greatest Wizard to Ever Live

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for an English class, and thanks to Arthurian legend, it can stand alone, but really it's just a Merlin AU haha. I originally posted this on my Tumblr!

            Merlin was on Christmas break, and he intended to make good use of it. At sixteen, everyone around him was starting to talk about university, and careers, and _where do you see yourself in five years, Merlin?_ He didn't want to hear another word of it because he had absolutely no clue what he wanted to do with his life. The break allowed him a chance to get away from all that and become one with his couch, getting to know the Netflix library as intimately as he could.

            Of course, his parents had different plans: Merlin's aunt, uncle, and little cousin Arthur (yes, haha, Arthur and Merlin; their moms thought it would be _cute_ )had been invited to stay over for the whole break. He'd have to give up some TV time so that his guests could watch, which meant less time for Merlin and his couch to be alone together.

            Really, Merlin wouldn't have minded the change in plans so much if it wasn't for Arthur.

            The first thing the kid did when he saw Merlin was ask him if he could fly, because "wow, your ears are as big as Dumbo's!" Merlin flushed, embarrassed. The news of his slightly-larger-than-average ears wasn't new to him, but it still caught him by surprise. His blush turned his ears bright red, making them stand out even more, and the six year old got in a good, mean laugh before his mom reprimanded him.

            It didn't get any better, either.

            "Merlin," Arthur would say in his high-pitched, snooty voice, "I want to watch _Phineas and Ferb_."

            "I'm watching _Firefly_ , wait a bit," Merlin would reply, trying to hear what the characters were saying.

            " _Now,_ Merlin!" And then the kid would kick him in the side.

            "Ouch, Arthur, stop!"

            They'd cause a commotion, and one of their moms would eventually step in. Merlin's mom would tell him to "just give Arthur the remote, Merlin. He's a guest, let him watch." If Arthur's mom came in, he'd feel guilty about fighting with a six year old and just hand the remote over. Arthur would smirk the whole time.

            Soon, Arthur started taking advantage of their mothers' presence by asking for Merlin's things in _front_ of them, and Merlin would have no choice but to comply.

            "Merlin, can I play on your PS3, please?" Then his mom would shoot him a look, and the next day he'd find his controllers sticky, little thumbprints on the underside of several of his games' discs.

            "Merlin, can I read your comics, please?" And his aunt would look at Merlin with such hopeful eyes, proud that her son actually said the word _please_ for once (admittedly the kid knew how to butter up the grown-ups), so he'd agree and then find his comics torn at the pages or stained with juice.

            The brat was putting a damper on his Christmas, and Merlin was starting to brood about it—he was supposed to be getting _away_ from his problems, not _dealing_ with them, even if Arthur was a different kind of problem.

            The weekend before Christmas, Merlin and Arthur's parents announced they were all going to go to some sort of work party, and left Merlin in charge of both the house and Arthur.

            "Wait, what?" Merlin asked, sitting on his mom's bed as she got ready. "Mum, I can't possibly look after Arthur for the whole evening! He hates me! And I'm not too fond of him either."

            "Merlin," his mom said sternly, "don't let him get to you; he's only six."

            "His age is irrelevant," Merlin pouted. "He's been kicking me, bruising me, and using me, and I can't possibly imagine what might happen to me if I have to look after him for one night."

            "Oh, Merlin, stop being so dramatic." His mom chuckled, ruffling his hair. "Use this time to bond with your baby cousin. Maybe he'll warm up to you."

            "Not likely," Merlin muttered.

            His mom shook her head, smiling, and gave him one more good pat before heading out of her room. Merlin got up to follow her, and then their parents were off, leaving him alone with the little Gremlin. He watched as their parents piled into one of the cars in the driveway. Even though it was December, it was still warm enough for it to be raining—pretty relentlessly at that—and cold wind invaded the house, trying to wrench the door from Merlin's grip.

            After he shut the door, Arthur looked up and gave him a big fat grin. " _Mer_ lin," he said, pointing to the kitchen imperiously. "Make me a sandwich. I'm hungry."

            Merlin looked at him incredulously. "No," he said, turning to make his way to the couch in front of the TV.

            It only took Arthur a second to stalk up to the couch and start screaming in Merlin's ears, "Make me a sandwich!" Arthur continued whining as Merlin turned the TV on and switched to Netflix. He was still trying to scream at Merlin to make a sandwich when Merlin's episode loaded, and Merlin had had quite enough.

            " _No_ , Arthur," Merlin said firmly, raising his voice above Arthur's whining. "I will _not_ make you a sandwich. You ate one an hour ago!"

            Arthur looked at him with betrayal in his eyes. "An hour ago is long! I want another one, Merlin. Make me another one!" The brat stomped his foot for emphasis.

            " _No_." Merlin repeated, shaking his head. "Maybe later, but not now, okay kid? Now sit down."

            "Don't call me 'kid'!" Arthur said indignantly.

            Merlin waved a hand flippantly, turning back to the TV to start the next episode of _Firefly_. His cousin decided to sit on the opposite end of the small couch, and Merlin didn't even get to the theme song before Arthur started kicking him in the side.

            "Merlin, Merlin, Merlinmerlinmerlinmerl—"

            " _What,_ Arthur?" Merlin asked, grabbing Arthur's foot before it had a chance to make contact with his ribs.

            "I want to watch TV."

            "I'm watching."

            "But _I_ want to watch."

            They glared at each other for a full minute, and Merlin was starting to feel ridiculous. Eventually, he threw his hands up and handed Arthur the remote, giving up. "Fine, kid. Here."

            "I'm _not_ a kid," Arthur replied, turning his nose up as he snatched the remote from Merlin.

            Arthur started watching _Phineas and Ferb_ again, and soon Merlin found himself laughing along, despite the earlier conflict. They'd been watching for nearly an hour, a momentary truce, when Merlin noticed that the weather outside was starting to sound dreadful. The rain beat down on the walls of the house so hard, it sounded like someone was showering it with rocks, and they had to turn the TV's volume up.

            Thunder clapped outside, sending a rumble throughout the house, and Arthur yelped in surprise.

            "Woah, Arthur," Merlin said, looking at his little cousin. Arthur was clutching one of the couch's red throw pillows in his lap like a lifeline. He'd be more amused, but the kid looked terrified. "Scared of the thunder?"

            Arthur made a face. " _No_ ," he replied. "I don't get _scared_."

            "It's normal to be afraid of things, kiddo."

            "I am _not—_ "

            The power went out, sending everything into darkness. The rain drummed on relentlessly, and the sounds of the storm outside became pronounced without the TV on.

            "M-Merlin?" Arthur squeaked.

            "I'm here." Merlin blinked, his eyes adjusting to the dark. Every few minutes, a flash of lightning would cast the living room in sharp blacks and whites, and his cousin looked almost supernatural in the dark, staring at him with wide, worried eyes, and a pale, pale face.

            Arthur flinched every time thunder boomed, and Merlin empathized. He reached out to ruffle Arthur's hair, and hoped it helped calm him down a little—the poor kid was shaking. "I'm just gonna look for my phone, okay? I left it on the table."

            He patted the table a few times, hand colliding with the TV remote, the tissue box, and his mom's potted plant of a centrepiece, before finally resting on the wonderfully smooth, skinny, rectangular device that was his cell phone. He lit up the lockscreen and saw that he'd lost reception, and that there wasn't much point anyways because his phone was at 16% and wouldn't last much longer.

            Merlin swore under his breath, but decided it would be best to use his phone as a flashlight so he could find some candles, even if it ended up dying faster. When he turned on the light, it shone bright and eerie in the darkness. He looked up to see Arthur squinting in the sudden light, scared and confused, blinking rapidly. Merlin blinked a few times too before giving Arthur a reassuring smile and standing up. "Now, where are the candles?"

            A half hour later, Merlin was setting up candles around the room, giving it a warm glow and offsetting the creepy vibe from earlier. Despite the storm roaring outside, the candlelight was starting to make Merlin feel cozier and safe.

            Arthur clearly didn't share the same feeling. He'd stopped trembling, but he still held fast to the throw pillow, like casting it away might cause the rain to suddenly come flooding in to drown them both.

            As Merlin waltzed around the room lighting candles, his stomach grumbled, and he thought that maybe now would be a good time for sandwiches.

            "Hey kiddo, still hungry?" Merlin asked, startling Arthur. It was a testament to Arthur's fear of the storm outside that he didn't protest being called a kid—he just nodded rapidly before jumping off the couch. He continued to hug the pillow to his chest as he shuffled into the kitchen after Merlin.

            The kitchen was still shrouded in darkness. Merlin decided it would be better to move the lit candles from one room to the other, rather than lighting a bunch of candles and leaving some unmonitored in the living room. He'd already started transferring them when Arthur stopped him with a panicked, "No, don't!"

            Merlin set the candle he was moving back onto its table and looked at Arthur. "Don't what?"

            "Don't move them," Arthur said, hugging his pillow. "Then we won't see if there's something in the dark."

            Merlin grinned. "Are you saying you're afraid of the dark, then?"

            Arthur shook his head stubbornly. "No! It's just... to be safe."

            He was about to tease Arthur some more and tell him that it was actually safer not to leave the burning candles unattended, but decided against it because his cousin looked frightened.

            "All right, how about we leave one where we can see it?" Merlin suggested.

            "But we won't be able to see what's behind it," he argued. "If something comes, we won't know until it's too late."

            "We'll use the brightest candle," Merlin said, picking up the biggest one and setting it on the table in front of the TV. "And if something's there, I'll let you know and protect you."

            "I can protect myself," Arthur said, but his grip loosened on the pillow and he looked more relieved.

            It was quiet as Merlin assembled all the ingredients for sandwiches. He noted that the cheese and ham from the fridge were already starting to warm up, and worried they might spoil. Hopefully the blackout wouldn't last much longer.

            Arthur was unusually quiet as Merlin stacked everything together for them to eat. The kid was seated by their round kitchen table, staring at the candle Merlin had placed on it, kicking his feet idly. He was still a little jumpy, and Merlin thought it might be best if Arthur was focused on something other than the storm or the dark.

            He took a seat beside his cousin and handed him one of the sandwiches, thinking about what he could say. Arthur moved the pillow from his hold to the chair on his other side, and then took the sandwich gratefully. As they both chewed, Merlin spied some of his Mom's Christmas gift wrapping stuff by the counter, and an idea struck him.

            "Arthur," he started, waiting until Arthur made eye contact. "Do you know about _King_ Arthur?" Arthur shook his head, but his interest seemed peaked enough, so Merlin continued. "He was the greatest king to have ever ruled anywhere, didn't you know?"

            "The greatest?" he asked through a mouthful of sandwich.

            "The greatest," Merlin said again with a nod. "He was the High King of Britain, and he fought all sorts of evil monsters. He wasn't afraid of anything."

            "Not even monsters hiding in the dark? Or thunder?" Arthur asked.

            " _Especially_ not monsters in the dark," he replied. "Although maybe he was afraid of thunder," Merlin allowed, and knew he made the right choice when Arthur smiled, relieved.

            "Why wasn't he afraid?"

            "I'm glad you asked!" Merlin got up, leaving his half-eaten sandwich on the plate, and walked toward the big bag of smaller bags, ribbons, and other Christmas-y stuff by the counter. Sticking out of it was a long roll of silver gift wrapper, and Merlin gestured to it. "There was a sword called Excalibur stuck in a stone because of magic, and not even the biggest, strongest knight could remove the sword. They said that only the greatest king in the world—and that was King Arthur—was destined to remove it."

            Merlin grabbed the roll with both hands and made a show of not being able to pull it out of the bag, making it look like he was really straining. He heard Arthur giggling in the background, and fought back a smile. After a few tries, Merlin leaned against the kitchen counter tiredly. "Looks like I can't do it, kiddo. You try?"

            Arthur grinned and swallowed the last of his sandwich, and then he got up and walked toward the gift wrapper. He placed both hands on the end of the roll and pulled it easily from the bag, raising it up in the air in victory. Merlin cheered. "You must be him, then—the great King Arthur!" He applauded, exclaiming, "All hail the Once and Future King!"

            His baby cousin basked in the praise for a moment before the words sank in. "Wait, 'Once and Future King'? I thought he was the High King of Britain?" Arthur asked, lowering 'Excalibur' to give Merlin a confused look.

            "Oh, he was," Merlin replied. "But there were prophecies about him. He died a long time ago, obviously, but they call him 'Once and Future' because some people say he'll rise again when the world needs him most." Arthur gave him an awed look, and Merlin felt a rush of fondness for the kid. "Or maybe he'll just get reborn," he added, poking Arthur in the cheek.

            "You think so?" Arthur asked, excited. "Do you think I'm him?"

            "Maaaybe," Merlin sang, standing up. "But Arthur won't be able to be a good king without his trusty wizard to help him out."

            "Who's his wizard?"

            Merlin made his way to where the kitchen utensils were and grabbed the longest wooden spoon he saw before turning to face Arthur again. "Me, of course! Merlin was—is—the greatest wizard to ever live, because he helped out the greatest king to ever live."

            "You can do magic? Really? I want to see!" Arthur was bouncing up and down on his feet,  still holding the gift wrapper in his hand. He seemed to have forgotten all about the storm and the power outage, of which Merlin was grateful.

            "Maybe later, kiddo," Merlin replied, ruffling Arthur's hair again.

            "You can't call me 'kiddo'!" Arthur objected. "I'm the _King_ , remember?"

            Merlin snorted. "Sorry, _your majesty,_ " he replied, before tapping Arthur's head with his 'magic wand'. Arthur gave him a nod, his face arranged in a way he must have thought looked royal. It only made Merlin chuckle.

            Time wore on and the power wasn't coming back on, but they didn't notice. Merlin regaled Arthur with tales of King Arthur's adventures—how he was born of magic, how he withstood siege after siege, defeated evil, assembled the best knights in the country for his round table, and how Merlin was by his side every step of the way. Arthur listened, rapt, the whole time.

            They eventually moved back into the living room to play around, Arthur 'conquering' the room, and whacking things he deemed evil with 'Excalibur'. Merlin ran after him, shouting out different spells (thank god for _Harry Potter_ ), and using his 'magic' mostly to blow out candles when Arthur and his gift wrapper got too close to them for comfort.

            Their parents came back just as Merlin was starting to tire out, and the first thing Arthur did was make the four of them kneel down so he could knight them. After, Arthur insisted on having a Round Table meeting at the kitchen table, and sat down beside Merlin as he started gushing about how he was destined to be King, how cool 'Excalibur' was, and how helpful Merlin was with his 'magic'. Merlin felt proud, and their parents looked very amused.

            "—and Merlin's got this wand he uses to do magic!" Arthur was saying excitedly. "Show them your magic, Merlin!"

            Merlin stood up dramatically and raised his 'wand', announcing one of the spells he'd been casting all night. Suddenly, the lights in the kitchen flickered on, and a hum reverberated throughout the house as everything turned back on—the fridge rumbled with new life, the oven beeped, and Merlin was sure the TV was already reconnecting to Netflix.

            There was a moment of stunned silence, and then Arthur stood up from his chair and jumped up and down. "That was. So. _Cool!_ " He exclaimed, marvelling at Merlin with bright eyes. "Mummy, did you see?" He asked, turning to his mom on his other side. "Merlin turned the power back on! He really _is_ the greatest wizard!"

            All the parents burst out laughing, and Merlin grinned, blushing until his ears turned red.

            After the laughter died down, Arthur was sent off to bed, but before he went, he turned to give Merlin a hug, then picked up 'Excalibur' to take upstairs with him.

            "See?" His mom asked. "Wasn't so bad, was it?"

            Merlin looked at his mom and considered the past few hours before replying. "No... I actually had fun." And he realized that he truly did. He'd enjoyed telling Arthur all those stories, and running around, playing with him.

            "Glad to hear it, kiddo," his mom said, ruffling his hair before heading upstairs.

            For the rest of the break, Arthur carried 'Excalibur' around wherever he went, but he never hit anyone with it because _"a good king only hits bad guys."_ It was all sorts of wonderful that Arthur said that himself, because whenever Arthur misbehaved, all they had to do was point out that _"a good king wouldn't act that way_ , _"_ and Arthur would grudgingly apologize. He also glued himself to Merlin's side, saying something about how a King needed his wizard to help defeat evil, and Merlin found that he didn't mind—it was actually kind of cute.

            Merlin's break was turning out to be one of the best ones he'd ever had. He even found that not just one, but _both_ of the problems he was trying to get away from ended up solved: Arthur stopped abusing Merlin in favour of being in his trusty wizard's good graces, and Merlin was starting to have a pretty good idea of where he saw himself in five years.

            He might not _actually_ be the greatest wizard to ever live, but the way his life seemed to be falling into place was pretty damn magical in itself.

\--

            Ten years later, Merlin found himself sitting at the same kitchen table they'd had their Round Table meeting all those years ago, eating a sandwich. He was visiting his parents for Christmas, and enjoying the long break. His new job as an elementary school teacher was everything he'd ever hoped it would be, but it was also demanding, and he felt he needed the break to up his morale.

            It turned out his mom had invited Arthur's family over for the break again, and their parents had once more gone out for the night, leaving Merlin and Arthur to their own devices. It was also raining like the sky just went through a particularly bad break up, and Merlin wouldn't be surprised if the power suddenly went out.

            Arthur walked into the kitchen just as Merlin was taking another bite from his sandwich.

            " _Mer_ lin, you didn't make me one?" He pouted, before turning to open the fridge.

            "Sorry, kiddo," Merlin replied through a bite of his sandwich. "Didn't know you were hungry."

            "I'm sixteen now. Stop calling me 'kiddo'," Arthur said with a frown. He decided on juice and poured himself some before sitting next to Merlin.

            "Sorry, _your majesty_ ," Merlin amended, and laughed when Arthur shot him a look. Everyone had recently took to teasing Arthur about the way he used to play king, making quips at him about being royalty, and announcing 'Round Table' meetings every time they sat in the kitchen to eat. The sixteen year old acted incredibly embarrassed about the whole thing, which was both amusing and endearing to everyone else in the house.

            "You know, Merlin," Arthur said lightly, sipping his juice, "you never told me how old the great and powerful Merlin actually was. I guess the role suits you all the more now. Is that grey hair I see?"

            Merlin clapped a hand over the patch of grey hair he knew was starting to grow by his temple and made a face. Arthur laughed, triumphant.

            "Shut up, Arthur," he said, "or I'll curse you with my magic. I'll have you know that I'm the greatest wizard to ever live."

            As soon as he said it, the lights flickered, and the power died—just for a moment—before turning back on.

            They took a moment to look at each other in disbelief, then threw their heads back to laugh out loud. They laughed until their stomachs hurt, and Merlin had to wipe tears from his eyes.

            "Remind me to never get on your bad side," Arthur chuckled, shaking his head fondly.

            Merlin grinned.


End file.
